Mob Attacks Teen Asylum-Seeker In London, Leading To Multiple Arrests

Police said the attackers asked Kurdish-Iranian teen Reker Ahmed where he was from before beating him.

More than two dozen people may have participated in an attack on a 17-year-old Iranian asylum-seeker in south London, leaving him hospitalized with severe injuries, authorities said.

The suspected hate crime on Friday night led to charges against seven people on Monday after authorities arrested 16 people, London’s Metropolitan Police Service announced.

The group reportedly chased and beat Reker Ahmed, who is Kurdish-Iranian, as he was waiting at a bus stop in Croydon with two friends, police said.

Reker Ahmed, 17, was waiting at this bus stop with two friends when a large group approached to ask him where he was from before beating him, police said.

“It is understood that the suspects asked the victim where he was from and when they established that he was an asylum-seeker they chased him and launched a brutal attack,” Detective Inspector Gary Castle said in a release on Monday.

Ahmed suffered a fractured spine, fractured skull and bleeding brain, the BBC reported. His friends were able to escape the attack and suffered only minor injuries, police said.

Authorities expect the number of arrests to grow, according to Detective Superintendent Jane Corrigan.

“We estimate that somewhere in the region of 20 to 30 people were involved in some way or other and it is possible that with confidence in numbers and fueled by alcohol this partly caused so many to get involved,” Corrigan said in a statement.

Police in London are looking to identify and speak with these two individuals following Friday’s brutal attack on a 17-year-old asylum-seeker.